A head-wearable display (“HWD”) is a display device worn on or about the head. HWDs usually incorporate some sort of near-to-eye optical system to create a magnified virtual image placed a few meters in front of the user. Single eye displays are referred to as monocular HWDs while dual eye displays are referred to as binocular HWDs. Some HWDs display only a computer generated image (“CGI”), while other types of HWDs are capable of superimposing CGI over a real-world view. This latter type of HWD typically includes some form of see-through eyepiece and can serve as the hardware platform for realizing augmented reality. With augmented reality the viewer's image of the world is augmented with an overlaying CGI, also referred to as a heads-up display (“HUD”).
HWDs have various practical and leisure applications. Aerospace applications permit a pilot to see vital flight control information without taking their eye off the flight path. Public safety applications include tactical displays of maps and thermal imaging. Other applications include video games, transportation, and telecommunications. New practical and leisure applications will certainly be found as the technology evolves, but many of these applications are limited due to the cost, size, weight, thickness, field of view, and efficiency of conventional optical systems used to implement existing HWDs.